Tired of the royal baby? Spare a thought for the memorabilia makers who’ve
worked round the clock

Maureen Mottershaw has recorded nearly half a century of upheavals in the Royal family from her battered office chair in Derby. The 61-year-old has worked on the same production line, responding to news of births, marriages and anniversaries.

“I have been here since I left school in 1967,” she says. “I was here for all the Queen’s jubilees, her grandchildren’s christenings and lots of royal weddings.” Diana, Princess of Wales, the late Queen Mother and Prince Charles have all stopped to chat on visits to Royal Crown Derby.

So it is not surprising that she knows more than most about the traditions of the monarchy, telling me hours before Prince George Alexander Louis’ name was announced that “there is going to be a Louis somewhere in the name – and probably a George”.

But she has been much too busy to place a bet. Since the Duchess of Cambridge went into labour on Monday morning, Mottershaw and nine other gilders at the workshop have been “on tenterhooks”, waiting for the name, which they must now stamp on 10,000 items of commemorative china.

Within minutes of the announcement on Wednesday evening, memorabilia makers across the country were hard at work on a lucrative new range of products. They soldiered on through the night on new designs, from a £10 tea towel showing a corgi peeping out of a pram to Royal Crown Derby’s “jewel in the crown” – a £16,500 comport stand, usually used for cakes, depicting a family of swans, with the new prince’s name stamped on its base.

Shops near Buckingham Palace are already bustling with tourists keen to take home a memento of the royal baby, but they will do better still once they have products bearing his name. Some £80 million is expected to be spent on souvenirs, according to the Centre for Retail Research. “One with a name on will go better than anything else,” says Professor Joshua Bamfield, its director.

“It is all systems go, now we have got the name,” agrees Mottershaw, picking up her paintbrush to apply the 22-carat gold. “There are royal cats, rocking horses, teddy bears – there is a trolley load waiting to be done.” Her colleagues in the design studio were at work until midnight on Wednesday, creating designs that were printed yesterday morning and applied to the china in the afternoon. The chinaware was due to be fired in the 850C kiln last night, and Mottershaw will begin gilding them today, adding golden reins to the rocking horses.

The rest of us may have engaged in light-hearted sweepstakes, but this company has been taking the name extremely seriously. The range is expected to boost sales, and even to outstrip demand for the royal wedding collection in 2011. John Poyser, production director, peppers our conversation with talk of baby “action plans” and “trigger points”.

“It is very, very important to us,” he says. “There is a very small window of opportunity and we have to maximise the sales potential of the gift market within the next four weeks.”

Poyser recalled 20 of his staff the moment the statement announcing Prince George’s birth was pinned to the Buckingham Palace easel at 9pm on Monday. “Our chief executive wanted us working on the royal baby products within one hour of the announcement, no matter what time it was,” he says. “But we’ve been working on tentative designs since just after their wedding.”

Evidence of this planning is everywhere. A pile of pink samples – including a teddy bear clutching a news bill proclaiming “It’s a girl” – have been abandoned on a table, next to a tray with rows of tiny rocking horses. “Hopefully the first pieces with HRH George of Cambridge will be leaving our warehouse today,” says Poyser.

Other manufacturers claim to have been even more efficient. Marks & Spencer boasts that it was “the first high-street retailer to produce a collectors’ commemorative tin” engraved with the Prince’s name. Alan Foster, manager of Timpson’s engraving headquarters near Liverpool, had been set the task of engraving 1,500 tins of shortbread biscuits and despatching them to shops within 24 hours. “I don’t know what day it is, what time it is or how old I am,” joked Foster, as he finished the last box yesterday morning after he and his team of seven engravers worked for 14 hours through the night.

“From July 23, my guys all knew they had to be on site within half an hour of the confirmation of the name,” he says. “I was doing a bit of paperwork when I got the call saying they were going to announce it. I nipped out to get some Red Bulls because I knew what was ahead.”

Foster first ensured the name was not a hoax, before setting up his diamond cutter to drill into each brass plate. By 9pm, they were ready to begin.

“We lost track of time. We worked straight through. We started off with the radio on but we turned it off at 5am to get our thoughts straight. It’s been like Big Brother, living in such close proximity.”

The first tins went on sale for £20 in M&S’s King’s Cross branch at 4.30pm yesterday. Tins were also delivered to the Queen, the Prince of Wales, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, and Carole and Michael Middleton. Smaller firms, too, have been rushing out named designs. David Emery, who owns the online tea towel company To Dry For, inserted the new name in his pre-designed layout on Wednesday night, replacing the holding name: Wayne. “We mocked it up with that,” he laughs. “But I don’t think Prince Wayne of Cambridge would have really been fitting.”

Despite their efforts, few of the manufacturers expect to keep one of their creations themselves. The engravers were not even able to sample their shortbread biscuits. “By the time they go on sale, we’ll all be asleep,” a weary Foster said yesterday morning. “We’ll have to look for a tin on eBay.”